British Endocrine Societies Joint Meeting 2003
Glasgow, UK
24 March 2003 - 26 March 2003
British Endocrine Societies
Volume 5
Society for Endocrinology Transatlantic Medal Lecture
Keith Parker, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA Abstract
The son of two clinician-scientists, Keith Parker attended Williams College, and then received his M.D./Ph.D. degrees from Washington University School of Medicine in 1981. His graduate work with Donald Shreffler focused on structure-function relationships of the complement component, C4.
After a residency in internal medicine at Parkland Memorial Hospital from 1981-1984, he first became interested in steroidogenesis while a postdoctoral fellow with Jonathan Seidman at Harvard Medical School from 1984-1986. Keith joined the faculty in the Department of Medicine at Duke University Medical School in 1986.
In 1997, he moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as the Wilson Distinguished Professor. His studies of the mechanisms that regulate steroidogenesis led to the isolation of an orphan nuclear receptor called steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1) that plays key roles in adrenal and gonadal development, pituitary gonadotrope function, and the development of a region of the hypothalamus that modulates energy homeostasis and female reproductive behavior. Ongoing experiments seek to define the basis for these multiple essential roles of SF-1 in steroidogenesis and reproduction.
On a personal note, Keith and his wife Linda are the proud but busy parents of five children, including two sets of twins.